Metal heads will discuss the pros and cons of Metallica’s new album until the cows come home. But what’s in it for people who are no great Metal fans and couldn’t care less about whether this guitar solo is too short, too long, or whatever. Should you consider buying ‘Magnetic Death’ or is it a waste of your hard earned lucre?

Metallica arguably transcend metal. Over the past decade, the band mixed the imagery of Metal with music that moved closer to alternative or even mainstream rock. Depending what side of the fence you stand on, they are now either a decent rock band with a bit of a ‘heavy’ image or they are a bunch of ageing guys forever trying to re-capture the glory of their 1980’s output.

Personally, I like Metallica best when they just rock, No pretenses, no fiddly bits, just a nice loose mid-tempo jam with tight drums and a wall of guitar noise. There are moments on ‘Death Magnetic’ where Metallica get into that groove, check ‘All Nightmare Long’ and ‘The End Of The Line’.

But then, I have to own up that one of my favourite Metallica albums is ‘Garage Inc.’, a cover album that sees the band playing songs by non-metal bands like Killing Joke and The Misfits among others.

‘Death Magnetic’ marks the return of the guitar solo for Metallica. After the band announced with big fanfare five years ago that they’d drop guitar solos from their music with the argument that solos are boring, they are now back with a vengeance.

You could argue that this a pretty transparent attempt to placate die-hard metal fans who may otherwise smell another sell-out to the mainstream. But there is also more drama, more harmonising, more breaks - in short, Metallica have brought back a good few of the traits that you’ll typically find in Metal.

From the point of view of an alternative rock fan, ‘Death Magnetic’ is therefore in some respects more conservative than most of Metallica’s output over the past decade.

‘Judas Kiss’, ‘Cyanide’ - even these song titles stick to Metal cliches. Both are prime examples of the less rhythmic, more solo-oriented approach that can turn Metal into a fiddly, over-complicated, stuttering sort of affair. Imagine somebody slicing up a 20kg bag of spuds with a flicknife and emptying it over the drums. Get the picture?

Overall, Metallica still have a very compact, condensed sound that pushes through the more awkward moments on the album. But Metallica’s songs have a detached, somewhat calculated feel compared to, say, the abandon of my favourite heavies, Japanese trio Boris.

The first single that’s being touted off the album is possibly not the best introduction to ‘Death Magnetic’. The song ‘The Day That Never Comes’ is a power ballad which is, for my taste, overloaded with pathos. It takes Metallica more than five and a half minutes to let rip.

The video for ‘The Day That Never Comes’ shows a new, conservative side to Metallica. I am sure it was done with the best intentions, it’s basically a story showing a man managing to swallow his anger. The way it’s shot, however, it looks like a recruiting clip for the US army with the band posing self-consciously in the desert. Watch the video on YouTube and see for yourself. I have to say it made me cringe.

Watch Metallica On YouTube

In the long run, ‘Death Magnetic’ might proove to be a grower. On the first few listens, I’ll stick to a few of the tracks and skip the moments of metal conservativism.

We say:

Listen Now to ‘Death Magnetic’ on Amazon.com. US Residents can download tracks from the album for only $0.89!

Readers from the UK and Ireland can download the album from iTunes UK.